Intended outcomes

Learning involves a lasting change in pupils’ capabilities or understanding. - Prior knowledge plays an important role in how pupils learn; committing some key facts to their long-term memory is likely to help pupils learn more complex ideas.
An important factor in learning is memory, which can be thought of as comprising two elements: working memory and long-term memory.
Working memory is where information that is being actively processed is held, but its capacity is limited and can be overloaded.
Long-term memory can be considered as a store of knowledge that changes as pupils learn by integrating new ideas with existing knowledge.
Where prior knowledge is weak, pupils are more likely to develop misconceptions, particularly if new ideas are introduced too quickly
Worked examples that take pupils through each step of a new process are also likely to support pupils to learn.

Taking into account pupils’ prior knowledge when planning how much new information to introduce.
Breaking complex material into smaller steps (e.g. using partially completed examples to focus pupils on the specific steps).
Reducing distractions that take attention away from what is being taught (e.g. keeping the complexity of a task to a minimum, so that attention is focused on the content).

Identifying possible misconceptions and planning how to prevent these forming.
Linking what pupils already know to what is being taught (e.g. explaining how new content builds on what is already known).
Sequencing lessons so that pupils secure foundational knowledge before encountering more complex content.
Encouraging pupils to share emerging understanding and points of confusion so that misconceptions can be addressed.

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